St. Louis

The problem of gun violence in the US is deeply complex and especially serious among developed nations in the world. Despite being declared as a major public health issue in 1989 by the American Medical Association Council on Scientific Affairs, gun violence has received remarkably little attention from researchers, due to political controversy and lack…

Prevention is always better than reaction when it comes to our health. When we eat well and exercise, for example, we generally have to spend less money on our health care and suffer fewer traumatic, expensive, and painful afflictions that can result from not taking care of ourselves. Preventative care is more efficient for the…

Seventeen dead in Parkland. Twenty-six dead in Sutherland. Forty-nine dead in Orlando. Twenty-seven dead at Sandy Hook. Fifty-eight dead in Las Vegas. As death tolls continue to climb and the frequency of mass shootings increase, gun violence has become one of the leading causes of premature death, killing more than 30,000 people and causing nearly…

On the eve of the 2017 World AIDS day, the Janssen Vaccines & Prevention Subdivision of Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical company, along with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), announced the launch of the Imbokodo vaccine trial. The Imbokodo study will test the efficacy of a promising HIV…

Cancer operates stealthily, overtaking body systems via hijacking formerly healthy cells, and propagating endless, devastating effects throughout the body. Until recently, there was slim hope for the body itself to recognize and eliminate the assailant cells. However, with the emergence of chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, or CAR T-cell therapy, cancer’s undoing may be on…

Upon first glance at the United States’ medical system, one may find a health care industry dominated by pharmaceutical companies and full of physicians obsessed with prescription medications. Furthermore, it is generalized that the market is merely focused on money, efficiency and the quickest alleviation of symptoms, without concern for each individual and the underlying…

Issues of sexual assault and harassment have been at the forefront of public attention. Numerous reports of sexual assault have been vocalized against high profile individuals such as film producer Harvey Weinstein and actor Ben Affleck. Such accusations inspired campaigns such as the #MeToo hashtag, which encourages survivors of sexual assault to share their stories…

Synapse is WashU’s premier neuroscience organization, but, although it may seem like it may be focused heavily on science and pre-med topics, I can say firsthand as a member of Synapse for three years that it is a student group with a plethora of opportunities for everyone to get involved in. For instance, I’ve been…

“Precautions and odor reporting are in order. Please wear a mask if in the vicinity,” cautions a Facebook post in the West Lake Landfill community Facebook group that links to a September 12 construction notice. A comment in response reads, “Why do innocent people still have to live next to this site?” The West…

Pre-medical undergraduates in colleges often feel a pressure to get lab experience for medical school and, most importantly, get published. At WUSTL, research symposiums litter the campus, and reading research articles is an important facet of many upper level biology classes. In many research articles, the methods and materials sections are supplementary and placed in…